How To: Get into Poetry and Where to Start
Childhood is filled with poetry; nursery rhymes, Roald Dahl stories, Shakespeare and Simon Armitage with his canary yellow jacket once you hit GCSE English. But for many of us, no sooner have we answered exam questions about the symbolism of said jacket or the merits of a haiku structure, poetry seems to disappear for good.
Something about poetry can feel inaccessible outside of the school system. It has a reputation for obscure imagery, flowery language and being quoted by people at dusty, old dinner parties you’re not invited to. But poetry is for everyone, and I do mean everyone. If you’ve ever fallen in love, been in awe of the beauty of nature, felt despair or laughed until you’ve cried and everything in between then poetry is for you. The reach of poetry is vast which can make it difficult to know where to begin.
For me, the best place to start is with a good and varied anthology. The perfect ones to get you going are A Poem for Every Night of the Year and A Poem for Every Day of the Year both edited collections by Allie Esiri, former actor and now poetry curator.
As their titles suggest these books contain a poem for each day, that’s over 800 poems between them from the classics of Walt Whitman and Alexander Pope to the contemporary Lemn Sissay and Maya Angelou. The books guide you through culture, history and the seasons giving helpful context to each poem to aid your understanding of it.
William Seighart, publisher and founder of National Poetry Day (1st October), believes in the healing power of poetry. His curated collections The Poetry Pharmacy: Tried and True Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind and Soul and The Poetry Pharmacy Returns: More Prescriptions for Courage, Healing and Hope are distillations of his BBC Radio 4 show of the same name, Guardian column and private consultations in which he prescribes poems to heal a variety of conditions of the human spirit such as loss, regret and fear of the unknown.
The books themselves are bound in beautiful fabric, a nod to their intended purpose, to be sought out over and over when a new prescription is needed.
In collections as varied as the ones I’ve suggested, there will inevitably be some poems that you just can’t connect with; this is normal, so don’t be disheartened. Not knowing how to read a poem can be another real barrier for some. There is only one rule when it comes to poetry, you must never read a poem only once.
The best poems reveal more with every read so give them a chance to open up to you. Other than that you are free to try them out however you like, aloud in the bath or quietly to yourself under a blanket or silently in your head before you go to bed.
There is also a quiet revolution going on with a new wave of poets emerging via social media. The platform is the perfect medium to convey short, resonating messages to millions and it has proved successful for a number of Instapoets.
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur and Empty Bottles Full of Stories by Robert M. Drake and r.h.Sin have both been New York Times Best Sellers thanks to their ability to use the short form poem to capture their audiences feelings on themes of love and loss, strength and survival. Empty Bottles Full of Stories will undoubtedly break your heart and linger in your consciousness long after you’ve closed its pages.
This new wave of poets shows us that far from being stagnant and stale poetry quietly rages on, evolving for the times in which it is needed. The best poems stay with you for life. They move into your heart and make themselves at home. The collections I have listed are a drop in the ocean of poetry there is to enjoy but don’t be afraid to dive right in wherever you feel comfortable, there are no shallow waters here.
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Written by Ali Critchley
